HI6033 - The Art of Power: Tudor Court Culture

You will learn through a combination of lectures and seminars. These will introduce key themes, topics and concepts, provide opportunities for debate and discussion in both large and small groups, and develop your skills in analysing and interpreting primary sources. You will be expected to prepare for the weekly seminars by undertaking essential reading, listening or other preparatory tasks, and sampling recommended reading lists and tasks in order to be able to contribute ideas and arguments to discussions with your peers. Independent reading and engagement with source materials will also be an essential part of module assessments. You will receive verbal feedback throughout the course via seminar discussions, written feedback from each module assignment, and formative feedback on an essay plan prior to the final assignment.

Your academic development will be supported through your module tutor, engagement with your peers, and through the programme leader. The module tutor will be accessible within publicised feedback and consultation hours and via email. Individual/group tutorials will also support the development of your final essay. Your peers will provide you with a collaborative learning environment, and your programme leader will guide you through the requirements and expectations of your degree programme, of which this module is part. You will also be supported through individual engagement with the academic literature, lectures, and resources available on the eLearning Portal. Formative feedback will be on-going through seminar activities and assessment tasks.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Knowledge and understanding of the major political and religious trends in Tudor history from the reigns of Henry VII to Elizabeth I
2. Awareness and understanding of the different literary, theatrical, musical and visual art forms in Tudor court culture

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. Ability to interpret and critically evaluate textual, visual and musical sources in relation to their wider historical and political context
4. Ability to summarise and critically evaluate secondary literature, and to present your own arguments in a clear and persuasive way

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Openness to the insights that can be gained from other disciplines and an awareness of the relationship between culture and power.

• Two contextual analyses of primary source material (1x 1,000 words weighted 15% and 1 x 2,000 words weighted 35%) (MLO 1-5)

For the first of these assessments, you will prepare a contextual analysis of a primary source, outlining its context and analysing key features that demonstrate its political functions and effectiveness. The second assignment will require a comparative analysis of two different types of source. A choice of sources and assignments will be provided by the tutor. Across the two assignments, students will engage with textual, visual and musical sources (no music-reading ability will be required).

• 1 x 3000-word essay (weighted 50%) (MLOs 1-5)

A choice of questions will be provided by the module tutor, which will relate to themes and topics of the course, but encourage independent enquiry to explore an issue in greater depth.

You will receive formative feedback from your tutor and your peers in seminar discussions.
You will receive written feedback from your tutor on all assignments. Feedback on initial summative assessments will enable you to improve on later ones. For the final essay you will have the opportunity to receive formative feedback on an essay plan prior to submitting your essay.

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In this module you will take an interdisciplinary approach to Tudor history, investigating how and why courtly arts were important to the construction and projection of political power in Tudor England. You will learn about the distinctive political and religious context of each monarch’s reign and explore a range of courtly arts including portraiture, drama and spectacle, poetry and literary, and music and dance.
You will examine who controlled the production of these arts, their intended audiences, the influence of attitudes to age and gender on their political messages, and how they served the political ends of both courtiers and monarchs. Throughout the module you will engage with current research in a range of disciplines including political history, art history, English literature, gender studies and music. Moreover you will develop skills in historically interpreting and critically evaluating visual, textual and musical sources (no musical literacy is required).